By MICHEL VIVAR
Netflix has yet another hit on their hands as its viewers have been engrossed by the Italian-language film, The Children's Train.
The movie is an adaptation of a 2019 novel that shares its name. After premiering at the Rome Film Festival in October, it dropped onto the streaming service on Dec. 4.
It follows the story of young Amerigo Speranza as a microcosm of inequality and hardship in Italian life during the aftermath of World War II.
Speranza escapes war-torn Naples through the Treni Della Felicita initiative in which desperate children were transported north where affluent families hosted them.
The audience feels the ambivalence of leaving home and appreciating a new life with new opportunities. The empathic tug leaves them wondering if the story was true.
Amerigo Speranza is a wholly fictional character. He serves as a microcosm of post-war life experienced by tens of thousands of Italian children.
The Trena Della Felicita did exist. Southern Italy had already been struggling after the Roman Empire's decline. Total defeat in WWII brought it to a new low.
The newly installed communist government began the "Train of Happiness" program to alleviate economic instability and provide new lives for kids from cities like Naples.
Though human rights groups at the time deemed the program a success, saving thousands of adolescents, it did rip families apart. Many never reunited.
The Children's Train may be fiction, but it provides a visceral backdrop for history not widely known. If it spurs an audience to learn more, the film's done its job well.